LETTER: Whispering Smith response

Screen On The Green outdoor cinema. Picture: Scott Ramsey

Published:08:19Thursday 22 March 2018

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As chairman of the CRC committee (community resources committee ) at the town council, I feel compelled to reply to Whispering Smith’s column last week, in reference to ‘who makes up the shortlist for the Screen on the Green?’.

In short, the town councillors, the above-mentioned committee and the events team.

The Screen on the Green has now been successfully running for the last five years, with movies like Grease, Mamma Mia! , The Goonies, and the very popular Dirty Dancing, which brought 4,000 spectators to our Green to watch a movie for free.

The process for selecting a film or films is requested by the town council’s events team. This allows town councillors to put forward a list of films if they so wish. The events team then collates the requests . Once the requests are collated a meeting is called via the events team, with which includes the town clerk, the mayor, chairman of policy and finance and the chairman of CRC. Once the films have been chosen, and if they meet all the criteria to qualify for a free out door event, including that they need to be rated PG or lower, it then goes to the CRC committee for ratification. However, in previous years, as like what has happened this year, there were some films already listed with which the councillors and the committee did not choose because the voting public sent in suggestions for future viewing possibilities last year when last year’s voting was in progress.

These suggestions were collated by the events team. It was felt that it was only right that these films should be honoured and put on the list for voting on this year as these were the public’s choice. These films are Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971 ), The Lion King and Back to the Future.

I can assure everyone that it is not an easy process to choose what is right for an outdoor event due to it being free. Serious consideration has to be taken into account in reference to licences, insurances, film categories, and that it is age-appropriate because it is a free event for everyone and their families.

Unlike when you are at home, there is no watershed at a this event – some families will still be there with their children as it’s a once-a-year special occasion in the school holidays, and it’s free.

Cllr Ian Buckland

Littlehampton town councillor, Arun District councillor, West Sussex County Councillor,

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